


The Missing Page

by Shadowdianne



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, SQ Endgame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-25 05:04:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3797776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What does true love mean? At what point Regina lost hers? And what if when she is faced with the possibility of a new life, she discovers that there aren't any perfect endings? Living a new reality Regina discovers that, as fairies repeated to young children, you need to be aware of what you desire because it can become true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N One day I’m going to have just one multichaptered story per season but… I guess that that day isn’t here yet. Anyway, after… well, everything we have been told about the season finale moments and the leaked images my muse whispered to me that it was time to write this story. I have everything sorted out by now but I still need to page everything so I don’t really know how long is going to be.  
> On the other hand I want to tell all of you that yes, SQ is going to be as endgame as ever but I’m asking for a little bit of patience (all of you how already know me knows that I’m a sucker for slow burnings but this story is going to contain smut so there is nothing ;))  
> And… that was it. Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: The characters depicted here aren’t my own although I would probably would take care of them better that the writers of their original show.

Cries and screams could be heard from every angle as Maleficient’s dragon form spit out flame after flame destroying everything she could. Storybrooke’s main street was now a pile of rubble with half-melted cars scattered around the place making the road look like a post-apocalyptic movie set.

As a few more citizens run outside the now half-destroyed dinner while trying to disappear for the dragon’s irate form another kind of fight was happening between the remains of the police station. The air around the place was coated with magic and here and there sparkles and electricity collided making the smoke that surrounded the place even thicker than the rest of the town. From somewhere inside the station voices and screams could be heard and as the gigantic dragon flied over the building looking for the ones she was searching for she could hear a gagging noise followed but what appeared to be a cackle that came from inside of it.

Suddenly deep red and purple mist covered the air just below the dragon’s belly leaving her blind to the next blasts of magic. Grunting and sending another powerful flame to the concrete that still covered half of the road she descended with her eyes narrowed as much as possible, carefully trying to avoid anything her foes could had have in store for her. When her claws finally touched the melted floor of the station she shrank, turning back into her human and looking curiously at the destroyed place in where pieces of the roof laid around crushing everything that wasn’t destroyed or squashed already.

“There you are” Someone at her back said menacingly and as last Queen of Darkness turned she found Snow looking at her. Then everything went black.

* * *

 

Regina and Emma were trapped in a vortex of pure magic with Gold and the Author in the backyard of the station. The place looked like a maze between the pieces of cars and objects that Maleficient’s attacks had caused to the city, the air smelled vaguely to the sulfur of the dragon’s breath and as the blonde tried to see the author hidden behind the resulted cloud of Maleficient’s fire she blinked. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks product of the putrid smell. It was impossible to see anything apart from a few figures a little ahead of them, the rest covered in the blinding fog.

“It’s over Rumple” Regina said menacingly while sending another magical blast to the cackling man over the overturned car both Emma and she were using as a shield “Stop this nonsense”

“I think, dear, it’s going to be you the one that’s going to stop dearie” The man replied as the Author scribbled something down in the nearest surface he could find with trembling fingers. Unsurprisingly Regina found herself feeling weaker and Emma sighed at her side, tired of the man’s tricks with the magical ink, her own hands burning with the amount of magic she had tried to blast against Rumple but the man- protected by the author by who know what type of deal- remained untouched.

“I’m starting to fed up” She murmured with stormy eyes as she helped Regina to keep standing when the woman felt a wave of nausea product of the draining the author had caused on her.

“You are not the only one” Regina replied while biting her lower lip as she tried to think something they could have not tried already.

“Fortunately you managed to enchant that net for Maleficent” Emma continued as Rumple approached them sporting a smirk on his lips.

“Maleficent is not one of my bigger problems right now Ms. Swan” Regina answered while sending a spell towards Rumple who shrugged it off like it was nothing occasioning the author to swallow as he wrote another line against the women.

“Well” Emma said as she moved closer to Regina, her hands glowing with dirty white mist as she tried to think anything that could help them against Gold. The man’s figure was barely silhouetted against the putrid cloud that covered half the city but she knew it didn’t matter how much they tried to hurt him; it was impossible to do it while the author kept the quill. “I was trying to remain positive but clearly that’s not what you need”

“If I would have needed that I would have asked your mother’s help” Regina replied bitterly before continuing. “I’m going to try to attack the author, if the imp still thinks that we are both somewhere in this side of the backyard I can teleport myself behind him and then attack that coward man until he gives me the quill”

Emma gulped feeling the back of her neck tingling as another deep red blast flied over their heads as a giggling sound could be heard from Rumplestiskin’s direction.

“I’m not going to be the one who hands you to that crazy man” The blonde whispered while trying to remember any spell Regina could have taught her before everything turned out to be far more complicated than the usual.

“Then don’t” Regina replied back as purple mist started to pool her feet and ankles. Highly frustrated Emma knocked her down while feeling Rumple’s magic presence getting nearer.

“You are going to stay here” Pale lips said against Regina’s ear “I promised you a happy ending, I’m sure that being death is not precisely your favorite idea”

“If you don’t let me go this instant we both are going to die” Regina murmured back “And I don’t think you want to make Henry an orphan or the pirate a more stupid being than usual for your death because you couldn’t let me go”

Emma stared at Regina’s eyes noticing for the first time how her body was against the older woman’s curvier one. Blushing for her thoughts and trying to keep her voice as steady as possible considering their situation she nodded once as Rumplestiskin send another wave against the car’s hood that hissed and dissolved. “Take care, ok?”

Regina answered her with a grunt and disappeared, a little cloud of purple magic floating for a second before disappearing completely leaving Emma alone against Rumplestiskin’s wrath.

“One day my life is not going to look like Zelda” The blonde muttered tiredly and wondered why the villains she fought against couldn’t just take a couple of bullets and stop attacking people. Gathering every energy she had she shot the blast against Rumplestiskin praying that Regina arrived on time to stop the author wherever the man was hiding.

\---

Regina reappeared at the other side of the station’s backyard and tried to spot the author while carefully avoiding any lost magic blasts that both Emma and Rumple could be shooting right now.

“Emma don’t dare to die” The brunette thought when she saw a white blast against the sulfur cloud. The air still smelled like rotten eggs and she needed to stifle a cough while she gagged.

She turned and looked closely at any hiding spot the author could be using; shooting worried glances from where Emma and Rumple were still fighting Regina sharpened her earing, trying to find anything that could lead her to the coward man who had her future and the many others, in her weak hands.

“Next time, you need to pick someone Fate try to think twice” She grumbled as she smiled darkly, the author was behind a pile of rubbish trembling while his left hand grabbed the quill between her fingers as tightly as he could. “There you are”

The Author looked at her startled and for a moment Regina could have sworn that relief filled the man’s pupils before being replaced by fear.

As quick as she could Regina attacked the man, her hands going directly to the quill trying to grab it before the Author could write something and end both her life and Emma’s.

\---

Emma swallowed, Rumplestiskin was a few inches at her right, his hands glowing with magic and for a moment the blonde thought on the crocodile-like-skin the man had had back on the enchanted forest. She would have said that he had never looked more like a beast like in that moment, until now.

Sighing she tried to conjure one more blast, her mind going directly to Regina who, she hoped, had gained the quill.

“Here goes nothing” She said to herself as she sent the magic spell as strongly as she cold against the Dark one’s body.

\---

At the other side of the backyard Regina grabbed the quill of the Author’s trembling hand with a smug smile playing on her lips, the man hadn’t defended himself, too scared to even try.

“You don’t understand” He said “No one does, I can’t write something perfect, life’s not like that”

“You should have thought that before playing with real people’s fates” The brunette said while trying to muster enough magic to reappear at Emma’s side.

She didn’t see the blast or the gleeful smile Rumple gave to Emma when he finally found her but she felt the magic impact as Emma’s failed attempt to cover herself crashed against her body.

The last thing she saw was the quill breaking into a million pieces while the author tried to reach it.

* * *

 

And then, light.

When Regina opened her eyes once again she found herself looking at a wooden roof where a few sunrays danced playfully making a few dots of dust glow in what appeared to be dusk light.

Frowning she moved her neck to her right eliciting a crack and a wave of nausea as her eyes focused on a half-opened door. The place was deserted but it looked like someone lived there judging by the table in the middle of what was only a big room with a floor made of clay and two little windows at the sides of the door. The bed where she was laying and a few utensils made by the same wood from where the rest of the furniture was made were other clues that the place was owned by someone although she didn’t know who could that be. As far as she knew the only Storybrooke’s citizen who had a cabin was Rumplestiskin himself and she doubted that the man could have left her without anything restraining her magic.

Worriedly she realized that neither the hut was Rumple’s nor her magic seemed reachable for her. Her mind was filled with the theory but as she tried to make contact with it it slipped through her fingers like grains of sand. Swallowing and tried to appear much surer of herself that she felt she stood, fighting against her nausea once and again.

She groaned and tried to move after a few more seconds, her thoughts going directly to Henry and Emma wondering if they had brought her to wherever she was, maybe Emma had defeated Rumple or at least weakened him enough to buy them time to retreat to somewhere at the other side of the barrier. It seemed unlikely but it was the only explanation she had so she put a hand at the bed’s edge and stood feeling lightheaded and slightly hungry.

“I must be completely drained” She thought to herself as she moved towards the door with slow steps. She realized that she was wearing something close to a gown and frowned, already thinking on what was going to say to Emma if she had been the culprit of her fashion decision.

She finally reached the door and pushed, founding it oddly open “If we are on the run keeping a door open it’s not precisely one of the best ideas” She mentally said to an imaginary Emma, even recreating the blonde woman’s scowl on her mind. Smirking slightly at the thought of what the younger woman could answer to that she step outside the cabin.

But then, as her eyes finally focused on the different light- Regina realized now that she hadn’t see any electronic device inside the hut- that the settling sun provided she paled, the chirping birds and fresh air making memories hit her with somewhere she had thought she was never going back to.

The Enchanted Forest.

Turning and opening the cabin’s door once again with trembling fingers and a panicked feeling growing on her chest she swallowed as the nausea feeling intensified. Once inside she reached for the bed in where she laid trying to regain her thoughts. The place was slightly darker than a few minutes before and she closed her eyes, thankful of the sudden calm that the place gave it to her.

“What happened?” She mentally screamed wondering where Henry and the rest of the town were.  She didn’t have any recollection after her fight against Rumplestiskin. She vaguely remembered talking with the Charmings and instructing them to stop Maleficent before going with Emma to fight against the imp. She had left Emma’s side to distract the man and then… she had cornered the author. After that she only could remember a scorching heat and the quill. The quill breaking against the floor.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the door opening again, her thoughts going in full speed as she wondered if the reason she had been sent back to the enchanted forest was just a product of the magic blast or the quill which she cursed, was now unreachable and so the possibility of any happy endings.

Steeling herself and already thinking of who could be at the other side of the now ajar door she tried to reach her magic once again but she came with nothing, the magical part of her still unreachable.

“Well” She snickered “I still have my story, whoever it’s the one who thinks they can trap me inside this cabin is heavily mistaken”

She didn’t have time to think anything though because at the other side of the room, smiling happily with his hands full of wood was Daniel.

Daniel who, after leaving the wood at one side of the cabin, approached at the bed and kissed her softly before looking at her.

“Feeling better?”

**Side Note: They keep changing Emma’s magic color but I think it was white or grey the last time she did magic right? Or that was the product of both her magic and Regina’s combined? I don’t remember… if anyone does please tell me so I can rewrite that part.**


	2. Chapter 2

_“Feeling better?”_

Regina swallowed as her headache intensified, her tongue feeling heavy and useless between her teeth as Daniel kept smiling at her with all the warmth he had once looked at her back when they have been young.

She couldn’t utter one single word as everything she could recall was how the man before her had asked her to love once again, to be happy, just before dissolving right in front of her eyes stealing the last thread of hope she had been holding that she could actually be with him. And now he was in front of her frowning with a worried look on his face as the silence kept growing between them.

“Regina?” He asked softly while kneeling right next to her. She looked down when she felt the shift on the mattress and looked absolutely mesmerized how one of his hands was close enough to her body to make her feel his body heat. “Love?”

Regina swallowed and looked up, her eyes looking to every part of his face, every pore, every wrinkle and gentleness that the man in front of her had or radiated. Slowly, she raised her own hand and touched Daniel’s, not leaving the man’s eyes for a second as she tried to discern if he was real.

“Daniel?” She asked as softly as she could, fearing that she would wake up at any second just to found herself in an alley trying to breathe through her injures. But as the man nodded and smiled with slightly worried eyes she found herself believing that what she was seeing was actually true.

“Are you ok?” The man asked when Regina didn’t say anything else “Do you want to go to the healer? I think we can make him help you after what I gave him last month when he was short of supplies”

The woman shook her head once again as she tried to clear her thoughts, the darkness was growing with each passing minute and the cabin was now in a dimly lit state but Daniel’s face and body looked that they were not only real but very much alive, not any single trace of magical curses marring their body.

“Healer?” She finally said picking up with what the man had been saying.

“Yes” The man explained to her with an equally confused expression “Do you need one? You told me that you were fine when you entered but now I’m not that sure, you fall from that ladder after all…”

“A ladder?” Regina repeated as she tried to recall such a thing but everything she could remember was Emma’s magic blast hitting her and the darkness that had surrounded her after that. Grimacing and touching her back she found herself without any trace of magical injury but a few scratches on her arm that she hadn’t see them the first time she had opened her eyes. Daniel was now looking at them and nodding to himself as if he had just reached an agreement.

“Yes, a ladder, a few hours back, you remember don’t you? I told you that we needed to fabricate a new one or just buy it to someone but you were too stubborn and...” Daniel stopped midsentence as Regina kept staring at him with incomprehension shining on her eyes. “Regina, love, are you ok? You do remember the ladder don’t you?”

Regina wanted to explain to him that she didn’t remember anything he was telling her, that in fact he was very much dead and had been dead for a couple of years now. But she couldn’t, something in the air, in her very bones told her otherwise and as she tried to reach her magic once again and found it useless the image of the broken quill came to her mind, the shattered pieces at her feet as she watched them helplessly, the magical blast engulfing her for a second before being abandoned to the darkness.

The quill.

Frowning, she looked at Daniel once again and tried to find any trace that the world she was in was just a magical mishap after the quill had broken but as the minutes passed and Daniel kept looking at her with a growing concern on his eyes she finally sighed and looked down; Emma’s last words appearing on her mind for a second. “Take care, ok?”

“Yes, that’s what I told you seconds before you crashed” Daniel said with a nod and a smile, seeming happy that Regina finally appeared to be remembering.

Regina raised her head, suddenly realizing she had said those words aloud. Biting her lip she tried to free herself from the cobwebs that filled her mind, Daniel looked alive but she didn’t know if she was just in another realm or in a world created by the quill when it had been broken so the Daniel in front of her was just a mere projection.

“Daniel” She finally said as carefully as possible “Can you say me where are we?”

The man sighed and sat next to her, his hair partially hiding her eyes when he spoke up, worry lacing his words as she looked at Regina.

“In the enchanted forest next to the nearest place but no too near like you wanted. Does your head hurt?”

Regina muttered a soft no as she touched the aforementioned head. She felt a slight bump at one of its sides but nothing that couldn’t be cured.

“No, it’s just… In what reign are we?”

Now it was time to Daniel to look at her like she was a ghost. Or just losing her mind.

“There haven’t been reigns in years Regina”

* * *

 

Green eyes closed lazily as the first stars appeared on the sky, the castle was now free from the noblemen and courtesans that wanted to ask for something and when the last one of them had finally abandoned the place pale hands touched equal fair temples and caressed them.

The day had been as long and boring as ever, and they sighed, feeling the tiredness growing inside of them just like they could feel the fear lurking in the two servants that were now crossing the main corridor and approaching the throne room as slowly as possible.

Sighing, they opened their eyes just a spec and raised their right brow when the servants finally entered. Dread filled the two men eyes as they bowed to their figure. Straightening slightly on the throne, which sparkled for a second because of the magic they released on it, they nodded, signaling the servants they could speak freely.

“Your majesty” One of the servants, the younger one they noted with vague interest, finally said after a few seconds in which the silence stretched painfully “You asked us to tell you when everything was ready”

They nodded, suddenly remembering the other part of their duties, the one they would like to do if it wasn’t for the searing pain and blazing darkness that seemed to engulf them every time they did it.

“Very well then” They said evenly, standing from their throne and approaching the now slightly trembling servants. Smirking, they touched the younger’s arm tenderly and narrowed their eyes, emeralds shining behind the narrowed eyelids in pure power. “Thank you for telling me…”

“Jack, your majesty” The man stuttered and they nodded regally before moving forward, their hand leaving the man’s arm as if they had never touched.

They walked through an almost empty palace running into maids and servants that looked at the floor as soon as they saw them. At one point they stopped and enjoyed the final rays of the sun smiling when the moon glowed gloomily with them, the stars in the sky becoming more prominent under their eyes.

Sighing again they walked and left behind the windows until they entered in the darkest part of the place, one in where no one except them and the ones they allowed to could enter. The door that guarded that wing of the castle creaked under their hands and deep red colored lips parted in amusement as equally interested eyes landed on the two candles the servants had prepared at the other side of the door.

“They had surely made an effort” They said in mockery as they took the candles, each one supported by two candelabrum of the same dirty white shade their clothes were.

Once the door was closed and silence filled the wing once again they kept approaching the northern part of the palace with the candles illuminating their path. They could have light up the dozens of torches that were already at both sides of the corridor but they were too tired to even try to perform that spell. With a deep sigh they finally crossed the last door that was slightly opened and tilted their head, their white figure standing in the middle of the room while the candles kept illuminating the place until they arrived to the two thrones that hold two statues, each one made by what appeared to be alabaster.

Swallowing the foul taste that suddenly filled their mouth they took the final step and put the candles at their feet where dozens of burn out candles rested.

“Mother, Father” They said tonelessly but nothing else came out from their mouth after those words.

And so they kept silent until the candles light faded leaving the place in the same manner they had once entered; without saying anything and feeling the magic and the darkness growing slightly inside of them.

**A/N Obviously is quite easy to spot who is the person that I’m talking about in the last part of the chapter but since they are going to be referred as “they” for a good part of the story I wanted to make it like that since the beginning**

**Side note: Just a question, how longer do you prefer to have each chapter?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N Hi! Sorry for the wait, I’ve had a really big writer’s block and I’ve writing little prompts to clear my head a little. ^^’’
> 
> Anyway, since last episode I’ve been also a little conflicted about what to do with this particular fic but seeing that I’ve yet so much to write about it I’m going to follow writing and the show can go and fuck itself.
> 
> And ah! I’m going to write on the SQBB challenge so as I’m going to be writing a really long fanfic (I’m way past the 15k they asked as minimum right now) maybe I’m going to focus myself in just a few of the multichapters I’m still working on. Either way every fic is going to be finished, promise!

-3-

The sun was settling but the temperature was still high enough to make Regina think about all the commodities that Storybrooke had offered. Sighing, she turned her back to the annoying heat and kept working, her mind completely elsewhere while her body worked by itself.

It had been three days since she had found herself in the little hut and yet she was as close to a solution that the first day. Nightmares crowded her mind every time she closed her eyes; the last moments of what had happened seconds before the magic blast still appeared in her mind, every time she tried to sleep, or just to close her eyes.

She had tried to explain Daniel that it was impossible for him to be alive but she had soon enough discovered that it was pointless, the man was alive and didn’t understand why Regina kept saying him that he had been dead for decades. He also didn’t understand what Regina tried to say about Storybrooke or the Curse and soon enough the woman found herself not even bothering to try to explain her predicament with him.

A part of her, she thought while keeping with the mechanic work that she had assigned herself after Daniel’s daily disappearance in the woods, wasn’t entirely sure if she really wanted to find a solution for her problem. In her world Daniel was dead and she was constantly attacked, her mistakes being shoved on her face at any given opportunity. A part of her, the tiniest part, the one who was still the Regina Daniel had met, had thought multiple times about the possibility of staying there.

But, she muttered to herself, she wasn’t that girl anymore, she was a mother, a friend, and as much as she would want to be selfish Henry was one of the people she wanted to see more than anything.

She really didn’t know where he was, or where she exactly was for that matter, the forest looked like the one surrounding the White Kingdom; the lands she had once called her own but she still wasn’t sure if she was really back or it was just a figment that a curse or an enchantment were creating for her. Either way, she thought, she needed to know what kind of weapons she could use against whatever had trapped her there.

Wincing, she looked at her hands and sighed; magic had yet to return to her and whereas she knew every theory that Rumplestiskin had once taught her she found herself unable to perform the most insignificant spell. It didn’t matter how many times she tried it, she didn’t have any magic inside her.

Caressing her right knuckles as she did always she felt out of balance she recalled what David had told her the first night she had been there.

“There haven’t been reigns in years Regina” He had said, frowning and she had found everything even harder to believe.

“What do you mean?” She had demanded, still not sure what to expect of the man that was in front of her; David looked just like the last time she had saw him, happy wrinkles framing his eyes, a soft smile on his lips… he was the perfect image of what she had been dreaming about so many times during all those years, wishing to be back next to him. But she couldn’t make herself believe that what she was seeing was true. She wanted but it was impossible. Daniel was death, she had seen him die.

“After the Curse the reigns disappeared” The man had whispered, looking at both sides as if he was expecting someone to appear in the hut and ask him why he was talking about such things “Truth was that we exactly didn’t consider them separate reigns anymore before the curse but you already know how everything changed after our… awakening”

Regina had frowned at that, not understanding what the man was trying to say to her.

“What do you mean by… awakening?” She said back, narrowing her eyes as she saw how Daniel flinched for a second, looking almost as scared as she had once been when she had feared for her mother to found out about their love.

In that time it was been Daniel the one who had hugged her and kissed her, being strong for both of them. This time the man was the one biting his lower lip, trying to appear composed when it was obvious he wasn’t.

“Regina, I’m going to go to the healer” He had said after a few more seconds where Regina waited for an answer “Your questions doesn’t make sense”

Regina sighed and shook her head, she had finally managed to make him wait a couple of days, adducing that she was still feeling a little shaken up because of her accident. With dubious eyes he had finally agreed to wait to the festivities that, apparently, were only four days away. Thinking that, at least, she was going to be able to think of a plan during those days Regina had agreed to that, inwardly trying to look for something that could help her to understand where exactly she was.

But it had been three days already and she didn’t have anything to go by. The only thing she knew was that, apparently, she wasn’t under a spell since she still could feel the time passing away, something that couldn’t be feigned by a spell. The other thing she knew was that Daniel wasn’t being impersonated but anyone else; she had fed him with cloves, trying to break whatever glamour spell the person behind his face was using but it had been useless, the man was still there after eating the spice and even if he had make a face because of the strong taste he hadn’t say anything about it.

“Why do you keep fighting against the possibility of being happy again?” A voice that looked eerily like her mother filled her head. “This was what you wanted, what you always wanted; a life next to him”

It was true; her best guessing was that when the quill had been destroyed she had been sent to wherever she was right now, next to Daniel. And as much as she wanted to stay there, next to him, she knew that she couldn’t. It didn’t matter how many times she tried to smile and simply forget; she couldn’t.

“Maybe five years ago I would have agreed to be here” She thought, “But I’m not that person anymore”

“And what had changed in these five years?” Her mother muttered slyly, making Regina shudder for a second before focusing on her hands once again. She wasn’t going to be there, no matter how much her mother, or her subconscious, wanted to make her go.

“That’s not something you need to worry about” She whispered out loud, watching the way her shadow grew with each passing second in the grass behind her feet as the sun finally started to disappear at the other side of the horizon.

“What I shouldn’t need to worry?” A warm voice said behind her and she spun around, blushing softly as a girl caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Even if she knew that she was probably in just some particularly well-planned curse every time she heard Daniel’s voice she felt herself smiling, wanting to just hear him one more time.

The man stood there, looking at her, his eyes still holding a little bit of worry. He still could felt that something wasn’t right with her but she had decided to not acknowledge it yet. She had promised her to go to the healer after all and she seemed to be fine apart from her strange behavior.

Kissing the woman in her cheek as he had quickly realized that every time he tried to kiss her on the lips the brunette flinched, he hugged her, still waiting to know what had been the woman talking about before her appearance.

Regina smiled at the chaste kiss and exhaled, relieved that even if the man in front of her was just a mere illusion he was still the kind and caring man she had once met.

And loved, an insidious voice snickered inside of her before she could stop the thought completely.

Closing her eyes for a second she shook her head and locked her pupils with Daniel, nodding encouragingly at him.

“Nothing, I was talking with myself. How was your day?”

* * *

 

Meanwhile, pale slender fingers caressed the throne, their magic growing inside their body as they finally signaled the end of the day.

Green eyes framed by gold curls closed for a second, pale skin finally relaxing on top of tired muscles, thinking if they could just let themselves fall in a sleepless night.

“I see you are quite well” A male voice was heard at their right side, making they jump and open their eyelids, magic starting to prickle their skin as they summoned it, a dirty white color replacing their verdant eyes.

“You” They sneered, narrowing their eyes as the man next to them nodded and chuckled, his manipulative voice already rising again.

“Yes, me”

The Author positioned himself in front of the throne, his fingers tinted with dried ink. If they hadn’t knew better the man in front of them would have been another subject, a poor one. But they knew better and so they swallowed. They were practically senseless in front of their subjects, cold as ice, imperturbable. Almost anything could break their impenetrable exterior. Except the man that was now looking at them with a hint of mischievousness that they had learnt to fear.

“What do you want?” They finally asked, congratulating themselves since their voice didn’t break or falter as they had feared.

The Author shrugged, his eyes never leaving their face, almost as if he was searching for something. Rising their chin the monarch let him look at them; white fabric covering her equally pale body, their eyes slowly returning to their original color, magic still hovering on top of them, watching everything, protecting them even if they knew that they couldn’t exactly do something against the man in front of them.

“Tomorrow it’s going to be another year since… the Awakening” The man finally muttered, his voice soft and pleasant although they felt the coldness behind the words. The monarch grimaced at the use of the appellative that their subjects had been using since the Curse had been broken. “Awakening” Quite stupid and yet so fitting.

“I know; you are here to say something else apart from the obvious?” They said, trying to be cold, majestic, but they knew that it was impossible to try to be those things; the man knew them too well.

“I simply wanted to know how where you” The Author said again, this time his eyes turning darker for a second, making them swallow nervously, trying to remain calm.

“As you see I’m perfectly fine”

But they weren’t and the man in front of them knew it.

“I’m glad to hear that, your majesty” He said, smirking as he saw the way they winced at the title.

With a final bow the man disappeared, leaving the palace as silently as he had arrived while the Monarch sighed and slumped on the throne.


End file.
